


Escape Is

by moonwalkingdead



Category: Walking Dead, Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 00:06:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2129520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonwalkingdead/pseuds/moonwalkingdead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>... the imagination of a blue-eyed girl named Greene. Implied Bethyl. Between 4x12 and 4x13.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escape Is

It's a harsh end to another exhausting day of running, this onslaught of pounding rain that has not relented, has not pitied them as it continues, unforgiving, since it began before dusk. They unfortunately hadn't made it to shelter before it became too dark and dangerous for traveling, and they're completely soaked at this point, stranded under a tree with low hanging branches that don't really shield them from anything.

No, he hasn't forgotten how cruel the world can be, how fucking merciless in its indiscriminate wrath. But after everything they went through, the loss they've suffered, was it too much to ask for a damn break, like maybe a dry night after evading Walkers under a scorching sun all day?

Fuck, life was full of shit.

This is not the worst night of Daryl Dixon's life, doesn't even come close. But it's very slowly creeping its way to a spot on his top ten because _fuck it_ , he's wet and tired and it's just so fucking cold.

Scowling at the raindrops falling from his too-long bangs and glaring at whatever he can make out in the dimness, he's only pulled out of his dark thoughts when the huddled figure beside him suddenly shivers. 

He turns his head, looks down at the small body pressed against his side, curled up slightly. So caught up with his anger at the fuckery that is his life, and Daryl only realizes then that Beth hasn't said a damn thing since they first sat here.

That was hours ago.

She shivers again and they're so close, seated in a bed of mud and rocks, dried leaves and broken twigs, that the tremors from her skin easily travel to his like an electric current. He unconsciously presses his arm against hers, all the while embracing himself in a futile attempt to fool his own head that there's still warmth to be had. 

It doesn't work of course, but he stops noticing because Beth shivers a third time. 

"Hey," He nudges her lightly, and she tilts her head a little toward his direction, indicating she's listening. Her eyes are closed, Daryl notes, and oddly enough, the corners of her lips are turned up. He narrows his eyes. "Ya okay?" 

Beth hums in reply, shuffles her boot-clad feet to burrow her face on his shoulder - or what she can reach of it anyway. She looks up at Daryl then, her eyes a burst of bright blue in the dark. 

Brighter though, is the smile that she gives him. 

"You disturbed me." Beth accuses with a light shove that doesn't unseat him, teasing good naturedly. His brows furrow as he blinks at her in confusion, and for a minute he's not sure he heard correctly.

But he did. "Disturbed ya?" He repeats, looking around them to see if there's anything he could have distracted her from. He sees nothing but a dreary, evening landscape getting attacked by a steady downpour and little else. "Are ya seein' things that I ain't seein' or somethin'?"

Beth laughs at his words, hooking her arm around his and facing forward to look back at nothingness. "No. I was imaginin' we were somewhere warm."

Daryl snorts at her words as he looks down at her again; he can't help himself. "What, like a desert?" He asks sarcastically, and gets a shoulder bump in return.

She pouts up at him, but playfully. "No. It's this lake outside the farm where Shawn, Maggie and I go to when they're home from college, for break." She turns towards the rainy view before them again, her smile softening. "We'd have picnics there and swim until we were so burnt by the sun it hurt us to change facial expressions the next day." 

Daryl chuckles in amusement, imagining a red-faced Beth riddled with tan lines and wincing even as she smiled at the same time. But then...

It also forces him to think of Maggie, reminds him of the Walker that was Shawn, and suddenly the picture Beth's words has helped paint in his head isn't so funny anymore.

He shifts slightly but doesn't move away despite the image her storytelling is forming, knows how much she relies on physical comfort during times like these. But Daryl wants Beth to stop talking about her siblings, one of whom has been long dead while the other _might_ be, so he opens his mouth to cut in. But her next words, it stops him. 

Because it's not something he expects.

Her smile changes again, becomes almost mischievous. "But I was imaginin' that it was us there, you and me," she says, not sparing him a glance as she closes her eyes again. "Should I describe how I see it to you? It was helpin' me keep warm."

He stares at her in bafflement, a little taken aback that she would take him to a familiar place, a _special_ one in her memories, as if he actually belonged there.

And he can't say no, wouldn't have even if he wanted to.

"Sure, ain't got anythin' better to do anyway." He answers, and she gives him another shoulder bump before beginning with a command. "Okay Daryl, close your eyes."

He does, and the pitter patter of the rain becomes nothing but muted noise as he hears her voice instead, creating this nonexistent world that's just for the two of them. 

_It's warm, just hot enough for us to be out walkin' under the sun. We step out of your truck that you parked with the tailgate facin' this big blue lake that's beggin' to be explored, and we're surrounded by trees and grass and little else. It's noisy in that natural, hushed way akin to all forests - the hum of bugs, the chirps of birds, the whisper of the wind._

_And there's no one else there. Just us, and the rest of the day._

_Of course we have a big basket of sandwiches that I prepared this mornin' with us, because this is picnic and you can't have a picnic without them sandwiches._

"So there should be a cooler with them bottles of ice cold beer too," he adds suddenly, unable to stop himself, and Daryl knows she's rolling her eyes just by the tone of her voice as she continues.

_Okay, correction: you and me with a big basket of sandwiches that I prepared this mornin', and a cooler with beer bottles in it that you've had on ice since the crack of dawn._

_We're all set, and we're excited. Or at least I am, but for a change you're actually smilin', an unlighted cigarette danglin' on one corner of your lips as we approach the water carryin' everythin' we brought with us that we need nearby._

_So we set up this big checkered blanket near the bank, and we dump our stuff in the middle of it. And since I can't wait to get into the water, the minute we've established our space, I take off my shirt which leaves me in the only onepiece suit that Daddy will approve of for outdoor wear. As promised, I keep my shorts on because I'm a lady._

_And by then you've already downed half of your first bottle - after I've run for and have jumped into the water, screamin' as the cold water engulfs me._

_There are no Walkers here, and no rain. There's just you. Just me. Just the lake and the sun, and our sandwiches and your booze, your smokes. It's not perfect because nothin' is, but dang._

_All of it is beautiful, and that's all we need._

Daryl surprises himself by seeing it all, feeling it all, as Beth describes a make believe world that is all theirs. If he focuses hard enough, loses himself in this fabricated daydream enough, why he can almost feel the warm sun on his bare arms, taste the soothing coolness of liquor on his lips. 

And even hear Beth's cry of delight as she breaks the surface of the now disturbed lake, turning toward him and grinning as she invites him to join her in the water.

_You cave in eventually, because I'm annoyin' you by bein' persistent and noisy. So you strip, keepin' only a pair of shorts on. And just when I think you'll calmly get in with me, you don't. You suddenly cannonball into the lake, sprayin' me with a wave of water that has me sputterin' and cursin' like a true Dixon._

_And you laugh hard Daryl, until the water on your face isn't just from the lake but also the tears of laughter from your eyes, because even if you hardly do so in real life, it's different here._

_In this lake of ours, we can laugh as much, as loud, and as long as we want._

_And it'd be okay._

Daryl smiles faintly, tries to imagine himself laughing until he's crying. When he thinks it, it doesn't seem possible.

But when it's Beth saying it, it almost feels like it's something he's already done, something that already happened. Like she's sharing a memory with him and not some made-up tale, one that they're using to escape a miserable world that has taken everything away.

_We eat our sandwiches seated on rocks, dryin' ourselves in the heat. I drink some of the beer, but I hate its taste so you bring out the sweet tea you've been hidin' in the cooler because you've brought some for me, after all._

_And then we swim some more, and catch fish that we put back in the water. We find out who can hold their breath longer under, and who's a faster swimmer. By the time it's gettin' dark, we've done so much and we're so tired that we just want to lie down._

_That's what the blankets on the bed of the truck are for._

_And we don't watch the sunset, no. The trees block that sight. But we have this amazin' view of the sky, so we wait for the stars, lying on our backs lookin' up and not sayin' a thing. Just waitin'._

_Because if there's one thing we have in here, it's all the time in the world._

_We don't stay there forever, but that moment, it stays_ with _us forever._

The silence that follows tells him the story is done, that there's nothing else after her closing words.

And in that moment, in this little nest of theirs that is made of mud and rocks, dried leaves and broken twigs, in one of the coldest nights of his entire life, Daryl is the warmest he has ever been with Beth right there.

He presses his entire body against hers this time, leans against her, relishing in her closeness like she's some kind of life-giving fire. Eyes still closed, he smiles at the vision of him and her at the back of his truck, under a blanket of endless stars. 

"All the time in the world." He whispers, agreeing with her because that's all they have left aside from each other. And after all that they've lost, it's not so bad a thing to gain.

And Daryl can spend his right where he is now, drenched in rainwater with Beth Greene and her daydreams as company.

It's not perfect because nothing about them is, but damn she makes everything beautiful.

And well, that's all he will ever need.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm supposed to be writing my ongoing fics so I can update, but yeah, I'm not. I'll get back to them eventually.
> 
> This story was inspired by Daughter's song _Youth._


End file.
